An eagle or a hawk has twelve tails. Each of these tails represent certain things according to the Dine (means the people, also known as Navajo) legends. The right center tail is said to represent the Naghee'nezhghani, or Monster Slayer, the male side, and the sky. The left side is said to represent the Tobaghishchini, or One born for the water, the female side, and the water holding and giving life on earth. The five feathers on the right side of the fan is your father's side. That represents the red colors, the harsh side of you, the fire side of a person, the hunter's side of you, the one that has harsh teaching. The five feathers on the lefts side represent the mothers side. That is represent in blue colors. That is the calm side, the comforting side, the caring side of you, that is the side that gives life on this earth. Putting both sides together, we are humans. This is how our people talk about these fans. Being human has five dimensions, each tail represents these different dimensions. They are; social, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Each of the feathers on the right represents your father's side. Your father's side has these dimension, that is what your right side represents. The left side represent your mother's side, she has her dimensions too. When we are raise with all these dimensions, we are raised very well. When we bless ourselves; when we are boys/men, we bless our right side first. When we are girls/ladies; we bless our left side first. This is how our elders talk about these eagle and hawk tails.
The Immature Golden Eagle, the black part of the feathers represent the darkness. The white part represents the early morning dawn. This is why in the Dine culture, these tails are usually put on the Ye'iis as bonnets. It represents the good things in life. This fan is usually associate with the east. To the west, the red tail hawk is represent that way, usually carried by ladies in the Dine Culture.
These are very much respected by our people, and if you want, please do respect and carry on these teach with pride!